This is a continuation-in-part of application Ser. No. 06/673,276, filed Nov. 20, 1984, entitled "Spherical Puzzle" now abandoned.
Manipulative puzzles having blocks which are movable with respect to one another have become very popular recently. For example, the "Rubik's Cube" (upon which a Hungarian patent application No. 170062 was filed on Feb. 28, 1978), has met with wide-spread commercial success. The Rubik's Cube has six faces, each face being comprised of nine blocks which are movable in two perpendicular directions. Originally, all of the blocks on a particular face are of the same color. The object of the Rubik's Cube puzzle is, after scrambling the blocks so that each face of the cube is made up of a variety of colored blocks, to unscramble the blocks so that each face of the cube is again comprised of blocks all having the same color. The movement of the blocks relative to one another is permitted by a multi-part spider mechanism carried in the center of the cube.
Another puzzle having movable square blocks is disclosed in applicant's earlier patent, U.S. Pat. No. 4,452,454 granted on June 5, 1984. There, a manipulative puzzle is disclosed where square blocks are moved about a sphere in tracks extending in different directions about different axes of the sphere.
In U.S. Pat. No. 3,081,089, a mechanical puzzle is disclosed which includes a plurality of different colored parts movable relative to each other for the purpose of forming various patterns.
While the above puzzles, particularly the Rubik's Cube, initially present a challenge to the player, the novelty of the puzzle often diminishes over time. Thus, it would be desirable to produce a puzzle which is capable of supplying a variety of different games having varying levels of difficulty so that a challenge to the player is always presented by the puzzle.